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Consumers warned of prepaid services

(CRIENGLISH.com)
Updated: 2008-05-05 10:45

Consumers who suffer a loss of prepaid services can join together to ensure that the loss is large enough to be reported to police as a violation, the head of the Beijing Consumers' Association Lang Danke proposed on Saturday.

Many services including laundries, beauty parlors, and shopping malls are now urging their customers to buy prepaid membership cards for storing advance payments. However the cards entail the risk of having the operator run off with the prepayment, Lang warned Saturday in an interview with Beijing Public Service Radio.

He suggests consumers avoid prepaid services because of the risk that the prepayment will be lost if the shop goes out of business.

If the business does close down, consumers can go to the police with their membership card or other receipts provided by the shops, to report their loss. However, it is better to make a joint claim along with others that have sustained a loss from the business closing, because the case will not be heard as a violation unless losses reach 500 yuan, according to China's Criminal Law, Lang said.

Prepayments for online games, unlike services, have no regulations to protect against the loss of prepayments for virtual weapons and other equipment used in the game.

Some players have encountered operators that cancel their account or delete equipment for no apparent reason and some have experienced a frequent dropping out of the Internet connection.

Lang says that since these problems disturb the flow of regular games, they should also be included as a violation of consumer rights.